Don't Give Up!! (It's just the weight of the world.)

So I've been trying to figure out what I wanna post about, and plan it out and make it all lovely and smooth sounding. I even wrote out a rough draft!...and then forgot it at home. Oh well. Basically what you're gonna get is a list of 10 things I've learned so far here in the field:

1. The field is white already to harvest, but don't overwhelm yourself by trying to do too much.

2. Even a 15 minute nap can work wonders, (even if it's face down on your scriptures. Ooops.)

3. Make sure you delete notes to specific people if you decide to forward it as a mass message. (Haha, Sister Harrison)

4. Companionship Inventory is vital to the health of your relationship with your companion(s).

5. Freedom comes at a price. (Or in our case a parking ticket.)

6. Be prompt. (Or the Jehovah's witnesses will steal your appointment while you're parking).

7. Missions are weird. It's best to just accept that now. They're great, but weird.

8. Stickers will always make friends! (That's why I know all of the primary kids names, and none of the adults.)

9. Always, always be faithful. Even when your faith feels barely there.

10. Nothing could ever prepare you enough for this. Ever. But it's one wild ride. :))

That's pretty much it. My going's on in a nutshell. Someday you all will get a longer post with more details, but for now this will have to do. :) Keep on keepin on, friends.

With love from Can-Win.

`Winnipeg to Saskatoon, with a vineyard still to prune..`

First order of business. I would greatly love to be put into contact with the following people:

Douglas Benjamin Speck

Tyler James Froelich

Could one of you who reads this be a dear and get me their emails....please. Thanks! You`re a peach.

So today's topic of conversation is missionary work!! (Big surprise there..)

But more importantly, in the ideal missionary situation, missionaries are helping MEMBERS do missionary work. Missionaries are called to teach. That is our calling. We are to teach, and guide. It is the member responsibility to fellowship and retain the fruits of our labors. Missionaries are temporary, we come and go in a snap. That, and we cannot carry the weight of missionary work ourselves. Members should be looking for people to share the gospel with, and talking with everyone. It is in their homes that investigators should be taught, that way investigators have that extra person to latch on to, another way they can find answers to their questions. It is SO HARD as a missionary to try and teach investigators when the ward is not willing to help.

Please, oh please, if you`re a member help your missionaries with the work. Make sure that they are doing what they`re supposed to. Encourage them to WORK! I also invite you to read through Preach My Gospel, especially chapter 13 about the ward and missionaries. It`s so wonderful.

Also, for all those reading who are family members that are NOT LDS, I encourage you to find missionaries in your own area and just talk to them about what it is I`m our here doing. If that thought doesn`t sit too well with you, then I invite you to go to Mormon.org or LDS.org and read some of the articles from General Conference. Find out why I`m out here. Discover what it is I`m teaching. Learn about what I`ll be doing for the next 18 months of my life, and why I`m doing it. :)

I hope you`re all doing marvelously. Keep fighting the good fight!

With love from Can-Win

"But if the Lord can make a blind man see, He can make a change in me.."

Greetings from the Great White North. It's a wee bit cold up here, in fact we just had another dousing of snow. In April. It's soooo fun. I've had some requests about a day in the life of Sister Hutchinson, so here goes: My companions and I wake up every morning at 6:30am. It hurts. But we do it. We say prayers and then work out for 30 minutes. After that it's juggling the shower, mirror, and changing room with three girls. Always fun. Personal study starts at 8 and then companionship study starts at 9. Sometimes it goes til 11, sometimes only 10. It depends on whether we have meetings or not. Lunch is somewhere around noon, and 1pm is when the appointments start. We're pretty much out of the house all day, with maybe a quick stop by for dinner. I pros. in the city so it's a lot of travel time and knocking on doors when appointments fall through. Then at about 8:30-9 we start to make our way back home. We do daily planning for a half hour, discussing daily goals, lesson plans, and study material. Then it's time to get ready for bed and lights out at 10:30! I love my bed. My bed is my best friend, and as soon as my head hits the pillow I am down for the count. My wonderful tri-pan and I get along great, and the only problems we have is that my trainer loves the work so much, she sometimes forgets to schedule meal times. :) It's hard though. Oh my days is it hard. I came out here expecting the work to be hard, and to have to really push myself to make it through. There are days it's hard, but not as hard as I thought. The hard is the personal refinement, the refiners fire pressing in from all sides so the Lord can reshape and remake you. It's something He has promised us, especially if we put ourselves in His hands. But it doesn't come easy, and you will definitely pay the tokens to do so. My biggest challenge right now is my dignified language and personal study. As a missionary you are supposed to choose words and language that identifies you as a missionary and a represntative of Christ. My mission takes this to the next level. There is no "cool" or "awesome" or anything that even resembles slang. It's frustrating, I won't lie. But I'm getting better at it. Personal study also hurts, it's just so early and I'm so tired. But that will happen. Some days I have really good study,and some days I don't. I spend a lot of time on my knees, moreso than I ever have in my life. I actually have bruises from kneeling on the kitchen floor before and after companionship study and planing. That is a true story. The work is good. The hard is great. There are days all I really want is a nap, but I push through. I miss you all, and wish I could give big hugs. But I can't. So this letter from Canada wil have to do. :) With love from Can-Win

Onward and Upward!

This week has gone by crazy fast, and horrificly slow all at the same time. I'm now stationed in Winnipeg right now. My tripan is known as the Winnipeg East Sisters. That's right, there are three of us. Life is pretty crazy, We're opening a new area so there's a lot of work to be done before we really start looking for new people to teach. My wonderful companions and I are working hard, and praying harder. I do have a fun story this week. My tripan went to a Ward Correlation for the Gateway ward and Brother D (who was hosting) is Filipino. Apparently it's tradition to feed the new missionaries a dish known as Balute. (I'm pretty sure that's how you spell it.) Anyways, it is a not quite fully formed, fertilized, but very much dead duckling. And so you have to peel the egg, drink the juice, and then enjoy your lovely ducky on yoke. True story. So the Elders down it faster than you please, and Sister Harrison shortly follows, and I'm stuck looking at this bowl of eggs wondering just what I have gotten myself into. Sister Rush tries, but only gets it in her mouth before she spits it back out. I wasn't going to do it until Sister Harrison said "Oh, I knew you wouldn't." Challenge Accepted. So I ate the duck. Ok, actually I swallowed the duck. There will be a video shortly to follow. Anyways, long random post short: the book is blue, the church is true. :) I invite you all to (if you didn't watch General Conference) to read the wonderful and inspiring talks given this past weekend. With love from Can-Win

"God Our Strength Will Be..."

    This past week at the MTC has been a blur. Our old leaders told us that if we could make it to Sunday, we'd be fine. Truer words. Well it's been two Sundays now. Sister Bronson and I are those same leaders, and we had the privilege of welcoming in two brand new districts. It was amazing, and our new Elders and Sisters are nervous, excited, and as wonderful as can be. It's hard to think that just a week ago that was me. I was unsure of what I was supposed to be doing or if I was actually able to do this.

    I leave for Canada the day after tomorrow and I couldn't be more ready. Certainly there are days that I wish I could have more time to learn, more time to pick my teacher's brains, more time to really soak up this drenching from the fire hose. But I don't have that luxury and I'm oddly OK with it.

    This mission is the hardest thing I have ever done, but it's hard in a different way than I was expecting. I was expecting to miss home, or to not be able to adjust to the life of a missionary, or to just be too weak to finish what I'd started. In reality, the schedule is long, yes, but manageable. I miss the people I left behind, but I don't wish I was home. Last but not least, there's no way I'm coming home before my time is up. : ) This mission is hard because of the gravity of the message we carry; the weight of the name we bear. Everyone needs our message. Everyone needs the Savior, and it's hard to think about all the people I'll meet who will tell me "no." I know my Savior was sent to save the world -- not just the Jews, Mormons, or the people who live in God's country. Everyone.

    A teacher told me this week that the Savior walked a mile in my shoes to bear me up when I couldn't make it on my own. Now I am called to walk a mile in His, or at least try to. I am called to seek after His lost sheep and bring them home. Lucky for me Christ will continue to bear me up on the good and bad days. He'll even go before me and prepare my way.

    I couldn't be happier about the next 18 months of my life.

    The past two weeks here in the MTC taught me that the Atonement is so much more than I gave it credit for. It's for my tears, my inadequacies; for that moment I struggle to love my leaders and the people I serve. It is to fill me when I am weak, so I am strong. Uh! It's so good!!! I just love it. It's been such a good experience here in the MTC. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

    So for all of you reading, I invite you to do some studying of your own and see what the Atonement means to you and what it can help you become.

    "God our strength will be, press forward ever, called to serve our King!"

With Love from Can-Win.